Monday’s Guilty Pleasure: The Three Best Guilty Pleasure Movies

November 8th, 2004

Filed under: General

There are three movies that, no matter how many times I have seen them in the past, I will sit and watch them again if I come across them while flipping through the channels. The house could catch on fire, and I would still feel obligated to watch the movie to the end. These are my top Guilty Pleasure Movies:

Smokey and the Bandit (1977). Starring Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jerry Reed and Jackie Gleason. For the six of you unfamiliar with the plot, Bandit (Reynolds) and his truck-driver pal Snowman (Reed) are hired to drive from Atlanta to Texarkana, pick up 400 cases of Coors beer, and bring it back to Atlanta (at this point it was illegal to sell Coors east of the Mississippi). Along the way, they pick up a runaway bride (Field) and dodge an obsessive southern sheriff (Gleason). I must have seen this movie at least a hundred times, yet I still watch it again and again. It is the quintessential Burt Reynolds film — back when he still had all his charm and most of his own hair. For my generation, this movie is what Reynolds, Fields and Gleason are known for, not their previous TV and movie work. The sequels are not worth mentioning.

Support Your Local Sheriff (1969). Starring James Garner, Jack Elam, Joan Hackett, Walter Brennan, Harry Morgan and Bruce Dern. James Garner plays a traveling gunman who is hired to be the sheriff of a small western Gold Rush town menaced by the Danby family. The movie is hilarious and full of memorable moments. James Garner underplays his role to perfection, and Walter Brennan (as Pa Danby) and Bruce Dern (as his dimwitted son Joe) are equally hilarious. Check out the “Memorable Quotes Page” from the IMDB for a good idea of the flavor of this under-rated gem. There is no sequel, but Garner, Elam and Morgan star in the vaguely related film Support Your Local Gunfighter — it’s also worth seeing, once.

The Blues Brothers (1980). Starring a whole bunch of people, most notably John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. Based on the Saturday Night Live characters of the same name; Jake and Elwood Blues must raise enough many to save the orphanage they grew up in. Many memorable lines and scenes — everyone has their own favorite (just a hint: I won a prize at a trivia contest by knowing what SCMODS stands for). Another of the movies that defines my generation. Skip the sequel.

7 Responses to “ Monday’s Guilty Pleasure: The Three Best Guilty Pleasure Movies ”

  1. tomthedog
    November 8th, 2004 at 3:44 pm

    I love Smokey too, but I disagree with your final line — Smokey 2 is more than worthwhile if only for the final wild, hilarious, inconceivably elaborate destruction derby between the 18-wheelers and the cops out in the desert. Part 3, though, that was dreck.

    Really, all the Burt Reynolds/Hal Needham films are great cheesy goodness — Smokey 1 and 2, Cannonball Run 1 and 2, Hooper — okay, maybe not Stroker Ace.

    And the other two I wouldn’t even describe as “guilty” pleasures. No need to feel guilty about andything James Garner-related. And Blues Brothers, one of the greatest comedies of the last quarter century, a guilty pleasure?

  2. Gordon
    November 8th, 2004 at 3:48 pm

    Gotta agree on Blues Brothers – I remember when it was actually filming in Chicago; became a
    huge source of personal and civic pride. Plus, it has everything – great music, a little romance, car crashes, four fried chickens, and a coke.

  3. Scott
    November 8th, 2004 at 3:50 pm

    I consider them guilty pleasures only because I drop everything I’m doing and watch them, even though I’ve seen them enough to quote every line verbatim.
    Cannonball Run…that was another great one. And with Farah Fawcett and Jack Elam too!

  4. tomthedog
    November 8th, 2004 at 6:00 pm

    By those standards, Robocop is my #1 guilty pleasure. And I’m okay with that.

  5. Scott
    November 8th, 2004 at 7:30 pm

    I’d buy that for a dollar!

  6. tomthedog
    November 8th, 2004 at 10:08 pm

    I just caught Blues Brothers on AMC. Started out watching it at the Brew Pub, where they turned down the music and turned up the TV just for Jake and Elwood, and watched the rest at home. Now I know what SCMODS stands for, too!

  7. Dorian
    November 8th, 2004 at 11:24 pm

    James Garner westerns warped me as a kid. To this day my notion of gentlemanly behavior is a weird amalgam of Cary Grant, Rock Hudson and James Garner.

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